In UTRA TDD mode the synchronisation channel (SCH) has two functions. The primary function is to provide a signal that enables a ‘UE’ (user equipment, such as a wireless terminal) to search for and identify a ‘Node B’ (i.e, a wireless Base Station of a UMTS system). The secondary function is to provide sufficient information to allow a UE to demodulate a P-CCPCH (Primary Common Control Physical CHannel) transmission and obtain the system information, sent on the BCH (Broadcast Channel) transport channel which is carried by the P-CCPCH, needed in order to be able to communicate with the network.
There are two cases of SCH and P-CCPCH allocation as follows:                Case 1) SCH and P-CCPCH allocated in timeslot #k, where k=0 . . . 14        Case 2) SCH allocated in two timeslots: timeslot #k and timeslot #k+8, where k=0 . . . 6; P-CCPCH allocated in timeslot #kwhere timeslot #k is the kth timeslot. Due to this SCH scheme, the position of P-CCPCH is known from the SCH. The SCH consists of one real-valued primary synchronisation code (PSC) and three complex secondary synchronisation codes (SSCs), all of length 256 chips. The PSC is common for all Node Bs, but the SSCs are Node B specific. The PSC and SSC are transmitted simultaneously from a given Node B at a specific fixed time offset (toffset) from the start of time slot 0. The time offset is included to prevent the possible capture effect that would otherwise occur as a consequence of all Node Bs transmitting the common primary code at the same time.        
Considering a network where multi-chip rates are supported, in an initial start-up condition, the UE will not be aware of the chip rate that is available. To cope with this situation, it is known for the SCH to be always transmitted at a fixed chip rate (e.g., 3.84Mcps), and for the chip rate being used in the cell by the other transport channels to be signalled to the UEs by using the secondary synchronisation code, SSC (by modulating the secondary sequences).
Heretofore, this has been done by storing code group and frame position information defining the codes in tables in memory in the network and UE. However, the amount of information needing to be stored in this way may be considerable.
A need therefore exists for efficient synchronisation channel encoding in UTRA TDD mode wherein the abovementioned disadvantage(s) may be alleviated.